


Cease

by starzaya



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, Angst, M/M, Unhappy Ending
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-10
Updated: 2016-08-10
Packaged: 2018-08-07 22:15:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,886
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7731787
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starzaya/pseuds/starzaya
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Hanzo makes some <em>bad</em> decisions, and both him and McCree suffer the consequences.</p><p>(understatement)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cease

**Author's Note:**

> Cliche ass zombie apocalypse AU oneshot  
> I haven't slept and I'm sorry
> 
> Short and (not) sweet because I don't sleep ever and I'm in more pain than you

They're surrounded.

It's not too bad, though. Tens of the dead fall in seconds. The disgusting smell of long rotting corpses and blood permanently fill the air. The sounds of Jesse McCree's gun firing at breackneck speeds echo around the street where the dead have them enveloped. In order to escape, they will have to fight their way out. Hanzo Shimada nocks another arrow, concentrating on firing as fast and as accurate as he can. Adrenaline helps greatly; the bowstring feels weightless. There is no reason for panic. Yet.

It's a disadvantage of only being a pair in the end of the world. You get overwhelmed too easily by undead. Years of hard, tough combat experience make these herds of dead irritating, at most. The pros of being a duo far outweigh the cons: more food between them, easier options for shelter, and of course, no problems that come with large groups. It makes the fighting more chaotic, though. They have to rarely leave each other's backs in fear that the other will take a bite larger than they can chew.

But unfortunately, the undead forced them apart. Hanzo finds himself throwing glances at McCree far too often.

There is no reason for panic.

That is, until Hanzo takes one of his paranoid glances over and can see a zombie  _this_ close to McCree. The cowboy has not noticed this threat.

A force of trepidation a thousand times worse than any anxiety Hanzo has ever felt before fill him to the brim.

There is now a reason for panic.

Hanzo's mind freezes and so does the world around him. He realizes too late of the zombie behind McCree. It would be impossible to nock an arrow with enough force to get to the zombie in time. A detriment of having a bow: travel time. That monster will get a chunk out of McCree's neck before Hanzo can take it out from afar or get there in time to kill it in close range. It feels like he's moving through molasses, when he makes a split second decision to run at the zombie anyways, no plan farther than that. Time is slowed to a near stop, and Hanzo cannot silence the dreadful screaming in his ears. All he can concentrate on is the steady shrieking of:

  _Save him save him save him save him save him._

Rationality is thrown out the window. He's trying to sprint, but it isn't working. Everything is stopped, and he can only _feel_ red. He can't think clearly, can't move, and all he can feel is frustration and panic, everything is red in warning and danger and--

Time catches up to where it should be.

He gets there just in time.

Hanzo has felt peace in pain before, and there is nothing more peaceful than the pain of rotten tearing into his neck with searing force. There is nothing that gives more relief than the knowledge of saving McCree from zombification. This tranquil feeling only lasts a moment, as the millisecond after Hanzo got bitten his ears start ringing, because McCree just shot the zombie. It would have been just in time to save himself from the bite Hanzo took instead.

 _Fuck_.

There is an alarmingly cold fluid trickling from the source of the unnaturally  _icy_ pain. Everything feels cold all of the sudden, as if he's already dead but still conscious. He's as good as dead, anyway, though. Instinctively, his hands close around the wound and press hard, but it won't be enough. He just signed his death wish with stupidity as his pen.

The only thing warm is suddenly the usually freezing metal arm falling over him and dragging him close. It's McCree. The sounds of his panicked screaming and the sound of his revolver going  _bang bang BANG_ , at speeds somehow faster than before replace the groaning dead.

Instead of panic, Hanzo feeling serenity again. Even though he's suddenly very, very, cold and in very, very much pain, he's calm. It's strange.

What if he hadn't jumped in front of it? Would McCree still have gotten bitten? By another zombie if he hadn't probably felt the force of Hanzo colliding with him, to alert him of the presence behind him? It's a bunch of what-if's. What if Hanzo hadn't been so stupid? What would change? 

It's pathetic how he's trying to be optimistic about  _this_. His mistake.

His hate fades away quickly as consciousness slips from his fingers.

"You are going..." Hanzo begins, between shots. "...to break that revolver..." The chastisement is hoarse and deplorable. 

He blacks out not seconds after.

\--

When Hanzo wakes up, there is nearly too tight pressure around his neck. There's gauze-- that's gauze around his neck, he realizes, when he slowly brings his hand to it. There's a large damp spot on the left side. The grogginess of sleep fades, and he's realizes he's back at the safehouse. No doubt on so much pain medication that the coldness of death's hands have faded completely.

The first sound to reach Hanzo's ears are McCree's soft swearing and the sound of his cowboy boots pacing on the hardwood floor. The spurs had long been discarded. Not anything else, though. He still had his serape, hat, and leather chaps. Don't forget the ridiculous belt buckle.  _What an odd man..._ Hanzo thinks. Absently, another thought runs through his strangely clear head:  _Am I immune?_

No. He can't be? Can he?

_No._

No, no, he can't be, because when he looks at his hand the skin has turned grey. He ignores the pang of disappointment and sadness at this revelation. Hopes too high, again. Optimism, because of his fear of his own, well deserved death?  _Pathetic_. 

The dying hand is closest to some old, what is that, biotic pack? Is that why he feels so warm and, for lack of a better word, alive? These are...temporary cures? His hand is slowly gaining color again, but it won't be long until the biotic device is drained, and he will inevitably turn. It cannot be avoided without an official cure.

McCree looks over to Hanzo on the bed, and Hanzo does not acknowledge the choked sound of a mix of happiness and sadness McCree makes.

"Oh you-- you fuckin'--" McCree is interrupted by himself. He's straddling Hanzo suddenly and in the same moment Hanzo is trapped in an uncomfortably tight embrace. He doesn't feel like pushing McCree away. It feels like he is numb. This is grounding.

"Look behind you more." Hanzo simply states, and his voice is raw. Like he'd been screaming. Had he been? Perhaps.

"You... I'm... We're such goddamn idiots, you know that?" The cowboy laughs darkly. Something worrying arises in Hanzo's stomach, and his eyebrows furrow. The pain is returning, bit by bit. 

"What do you mean?" His words are becoming slow and thick like honey. The warm feeling is leaving, to be replaced by a dead cold. Hanzo feels hot tears in his eyes. Suspicion is turning into assumptions and Hanzo cannot dare to indulge in they are true or not. 

"You didn't have to do that, ya big oaf." McCree's starting to choke up from the sound of it. He's shaking, too. Violently. Hanzo wraps his arms around McCree as well.

"That's  _my_ line, you big oaf." Hanzo tries, lightly, as he starts to sound like he's about to break down. The biotic pack is running out quickly now.

How long had he been out?

"Yeah, but...god. I shoulda told you. Fuck!"

Hanzo's heart stops.

"Explain." He demands, voice cracking in the middle of his suddenly icy tone.

"I'm fucking immune, Hanzo-- I got...bitten a few months ago, and nothin' 'cept my arm feeling like a bitch for a week happened. Even if you didn't...didn't stop the bite, I woulda been fine. Hanzo,  _god_." 

No.

No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No.

_No no no no_

Hanzo had truly, royally fucked up.

"For fucks sake, Jesse." Attempting a growl fails. It comes out more like a pained cry. "Do you know how much it would have  _eased_ me to know that?"

McCree does not respond. His grip only gets tighter. It just adds onto the physical and emotional pain, as the last bit of power in the biotic pack fades to nothing. It silences. Only McCree's pathetic sniffles that reveal he is crying like a  _baby_ , and Hanzo's steadily heavier breathing fill the room. The occasional grunt from the outside, sometimes a breeze, or rustling of grass, can be heard, that just remind Hanzo of what he is leaving soon. His lungs tighten. It's harder to breathe, and Hanzo cannot tell if it because he is dying or crying. Or both. It's suddenly very cold, and Hanzo cannot feel McCree's hug anymore. It turns into a tight feeling across his back and chest and in his hands. Though, the latter fades as they completely numb to death.

It can't be long now.

Hanzo is angry. With himself, and McCree. He's borderline sobbing. He's  _dying_ goddammit! He can't even form words in his mouth. He wants to say so much, but he can't.

It won't be long now.

"Wait-- I'll... I'll go Angie, she'll know what to do. I'll-- I have to have more of those bio things--" McCree, no, this is not a time for "formality",  _Jesse_ frantically spouts, and Hanzo finally chokes out something.

"Jesse." He begins. "I don't want...to turn." His voice breaks and goes high, as his shoulders numb, too. 

"No, no, you won't. I'ma go get another thing, I gotta have one, and-- and I'll call up Angie to come here or I'll bring you to her--" Again, Hanzo stops Jesse from babbling his plans that will happen too late. . It's getting easier to talk as feeling fades from his limbs.

"That's not...what I meant. I want you to..." It's hard to say. Incredibly hard to say. Hanzo is not sure how he manages to spit it out. "I want you to kill me before  _it_ happens." 

Hanzo wants to die by Jesse's hand preferably, or at least in his arms. Not because of a poison already ruling his veins that will turn him into a  _monster_. 

"No," Jesse begins in denial. "you're not gonna die. I'm gonna stop it!"

"No, you're not." Everything is going numb now.  _Everything_.

It's soon.

"Why...didn't you tell me?" Hanzo says quietly, breaking the sudden silence.

"I couldn't..." Jesse pauses, exhaling slowly. "I couldn't risk... I can't trust..." He trails off. He has said all he needs to.

"You can't  _trust_?"

"I'm..."

"I don't wanna hear it, Jesse."

It's the end.

"Kill me. I don't want to die like  _that_."

"I-- I can't."

" _Do it_." Hanzo demands, his voice solid even in his too soon death.

Cold steel finally hits Hanzo's forehead after a few moments. It's shaking, despite Jesse always having a steady hand with his gun. Hanzo sighs, contently, and smiles.

"Don't make me--" Jesse's voice cracked for the first time in forever. For the last time, he interrupts Jesse's rambling. 

Hanzo is going to miss making Jesse shut up. Who's going to make him quit now?

"Jesse. I love you."

The last thing Hanzo hears is the bang of the revolver.

And then darkness.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> (there is another Good Timeline where both are immune if u guys want that :x)
> 
> Contact me at:
> 
>  
> 
> <https://starzaya.tumblr.com/>


End file.
